


Say It

by Morrigan2345



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:27:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23539870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morrigan2345/pseuds/Morrigan2345
Summary: Zack is dying.That fact should be more painful than not being able to explain himself to the only person he’d want to see right now but, again, the Planet has it out for him.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Say It

**Author's Note:**

> Late to the writing party but have loved these two since hmm, a while.
> 
> Sad, sad, sad, sorry.
> 
> All spelling and grammar mistakes are mine!

He wonders why the universe has to have such a sick sense of humor when his back hits the dusty earth and he sees the city that’s been waiting for him for four years to his left, only a couple of miles away. 

Zack looks over to Cloud and silently apologizes that the first thing he’s going to see when he wakes up is a dead friend and a couple of hundred bodies littered around them. Hopefully he won’t be too disoriented either and do something stupid like forget the Buster Sword that Zack had placed right next to his finally resting place with the last of his ability.

 _Hopefully,_ the sword will serve Cloud better than its two predecessors anyway.

 _Well,_ he amends silently looking over the sea of blood in front of him, _serve him differently at least._

Zack is dying and that fact should be more painful than not being able to explain himself to the only person he’d want to see right now but, again, the Planet has it out for him.

“I’m sorry.” He says, it sounds ruined even to his own zoned out hearing but at least it’s out there now, it’s the only thing he can do for her.

Actually, the last thing he can do is slip his eye’s shut even further and finally follow the warm feeling that’s been slowly enveloping him for the past hour he’s been trying to stay awake.

He doesn’t think anyone’s going to blame him, they might be disappointed, but they couldn’t blame him.

He tried, really, he did it’s just-

He barely feels the breeze now, it’s not as important as the feeling of floating he’s currently experiencing.

When, suddenly, a cool hand is touching his cheek and he feels the part of himself that was sailing slowly away come back in a way that the impact of bullets he had felt could hardly compare to.

He gasps but there’s a familiar voice above him and no, she _can’t be here, but-_

“You can’t leave.”

His eyes struggle to open, and he sees her in his peripheral vision but Zack _can’t look because-_

“Why?” he asks, and it’s not to her (because why hasn’t he been let go yet, does the universe really hate him this much? Enough to torment him with-)

She answers anyway because of course she does, “You promised, obviously.”

“Obviously.” He says, and when he finally looks at her his breathing shudders at what he sees.

Of course, she’s not _really_ here, how could she have known that he’d be out here dying in the desert.

The green shimmer around her is almost as comforting as the hallucination itself, but when he looks into her eyes he knows that even the Lifestream’s green could never compare to the shade of her eyes.

“Don’t cry.” He begs, because even though it’s his hallucination he knows she’d never listen to him anyways, and-

She starts crying.

The palm on his cheek is still so nice that he can’t really do much more than stare helplessly; the planet, he decides, can really shove it right now.

“Please.” He says, because he’s never seen her cry like this, and he’d rather not go with that being the last thing he’d see of her.

The hallucination stops crying, thankfully, but she says, “You’ll be okay.”

He’d shake his head if he could, “ _You’ll_ be okay,” he says because he knows he’s dying but if something were to happen to her he’d actually _die_ , so he flicks his useless eyes towards Cloud who’s still slumped over, “he’ll take care of it. He’ll know, he has a knack for knowing what I want him to do.” His words are stilted but he knows she understands by the way her unfocused eyes trail across his face in the familiar way that means she’s thinking.

She nods, “Okay.”

Somehow, he finds the strength to chuckle (with her here it’s easier to find that, _strength_ ,) “’Okay’ she says, maybe this isn’t such a good idea, he is kind of handsome- if you’re into the whole pretty boy thing.” He says and when she shoves his shoulder, he doesn’t feel it because one, he can’t feel his shoulders and two, she’s still a hallucination.

“I happen to like the puppy dog types, you should know.” She says, but her hand is now below his limited eyesight and he can only focus on her face, the shape of her lips and the tearstained cheeks he sees have been worth coming back for.

“It’s fine,” he breathes out, her eye’s grow concerned but he needs to get this out too, even if it’s still just a thought to the wind that he hopes gets to her in someway, “it’s okay if you do, Aerith.” And the way her name comes out of his mouth is more like any prayer he was ever taught.

“Zack-“ she says, because of course she’d try and argue with a dying man, even as a hallucination.

“Please,” he interrupts her, “say it.” He needs to hear it from her own mouth.

She only hesitates a little bit, “It’s okay.” And there’s a finality to her voice that makes him feel more at peace than the slowly encroaching green shimmer forming around her.

“I love you.” He says, because even though that thought doesn’t have to be carried through the wind to her he likes the reminder.

He see’s her lips move but there’s a grunt to his right and suddenly his eyes are full of a familiar blond.

Too quickly, afterwards, he hears the shifting of Cloud struggling to get moving, sword in hand and a new legacy that Zack would feel bad about placing on his shoulders if he didn’t know that the other man couldn’t take it.

When he looks back to where Aerith was, he sees an outline of a hand, glimmering in green and he thinks-

_Finally,_

And

_I love you._

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted closure, I really like the turmoil that the game left with Zack's death originally but MAN was it sad.
> 
> Was she real, who knows, not me!
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
